The Songs of the Hopeful: A Chipmunk Story
by ii The Raconteur ii
Summary: Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor Miller are three talented explorers and performers always looking for the next big adventure, but it was not always this way. What have they been keeping from their close friends and family? Who are these mysterious girls, with their brilliant talents and daring lifestyle? Every great story has a beginning. Now, learn the origins of the Chipettes.
1. Chapter One:The Wild

**BOOK ONE:  
** **Forgotten**

 **Chapter One:  
** _ **The Wild**_

* * *

 _The voice of Daddy Dale, the strongest chipmunk ever. His tough arms around her. The smell of a crackling campfire and pine needles. Silly backwoods songs and terrible dad jokes echoing through the woods. Feel of laughter and fun._

 _Daddy didn't just make her strong. He made her unbreakable._

 _Three years since Mamma died of sickness. Four since we were born. Daddy never cried. Daddy taught us everything. He made us everything. He was everything._

 _I never knew that he could bleed._

 _Seven years since we were born. Six since Mamma died. Three since the fox took Daddy away, too. And now, it's just us. It will always be just us. And that's the way I like it._

 _I never have to watch them bleed again._

* * *

The rugged Australian outback stirred beneath an early summer sky, bright and blue save the few lonely wisps of cloud that drifted high above. A warm breeze brought with it the bold scent of sunbaked dirt. The unforgiving wilderness spread as far as the eye could see, halting only for the occasional winding stream or rocky ledge. Down in the brush, beneath the shady cover of a small grove, the tiniest of lives and the largest of stories had begun.

A very young female chipmunk stood outside of an unfinished burrow, standing no taller than an open human hand. Her fur was dark as a coffee bean, while her face, belly, and stripes were the color of white sand. A messy, lopsided bun was piled on top of her head, barely held back by a grass hair tie.

"Uh, Brittany?" she called into the burrow in a timid and naturally high-pitched voice, ducking her head as a wad of dirt flew from the hole, "Are you sure you don't need any help? I could throw together a shovel or something if you want me to."

"I've got it, Jeanette," an equally high-pitched voice called back as more dirt flew from the burrow's interior, "I promised us a new home before this winter and that's what we're getting!"

"But wouldn't it be easier with a, you know, tool, or-"

Jeanette was cut short as a clump of dirt thumped into her tiny face. She stumbled around, spitting and wiping her eyes.

"Pth! Blegh! Brittany!"

The showers of dirt stopped and an equally tiny head, the size of a ping-pong ball, popped out of the burrow. It was Brittany, the older sister of the two chipmunks, with short-cropped hair and fur the color of an orange tulip in spring, and stripes that matched her sister's. She was stained and darkened from head to toe with dirt. Her sharp ice-blue eyes blinked the dust away as she scrubbed her paws on the ground to clean her claws.

"Oh wow, sorry, Jeanette," she said, guiding her blinded sister to a nearby rain puddle to clean up, "I got carried away again. Hey, what do you think about decorations? I've almost got the living room done, but there's a big root in the way of our bedroom."

"A root, hm?" Jeanette said, splashing some water on her face, "Just dig under it, that'll give us a stable roof, if anything. Decorations? Maybe some ivy, or we can clear out some grass to plant flowers."

"I thought about some river stones to put around the entrance, too!" Brittany exclaimed, flicking her bushy tail to fling a clod of dirt away, "Oh Jenny, this is exciting! I've been wanting a new home since that wallaby uh…moved into our last one."

"He really didn't care about paying rent," Jeanette muttered, "Or using the restroom in the right place."

"It's better than the one before that, when we ended up with a scorpion in the dining room."

"Or the time we were besieged by a caiman."

"Oooor the time we had to fight off a tarantula with sticks."

"Or the time a capybara decided to use our burrow for-"

"Don't talk about that!" Brittany squeaked, "Do you think we can do it this time?"

"With resolve, Brittany," Jeanette smiled with a twinkle in her soft green eyes, "Faith makes anything possible. Determination makes it happen."

Brittany giggled and shoved her sister over. "Oh that's so lame, Jenny. Lame but true. _De…term…in…ation_. That word is longer than you are tall!"

After cleaning up, both chipmunks turned and scurried over to a flat area of soft grayish clay by the water's edge. This was where they planned and created designs to one day bring to life. Brittany took a little twig and began scratching lines into the clay as she laid out her ideas to her sister, drawing lines for walls and circles for furniture.

"Let's see…entrance here, see? Really tight and stable so we can get in and out okay, but any big baddies can't. We can just dig it out bigger as we grow. This rock right here? That's the door, no snakes and spiders for us! The burrow goes right to the living room, with pretty twig couches and some seasonal flowers to brighten it up."

Jeanette studied the precise lines etched onto the ground, her tiny green eyes aglow with focus. Brittany allowed her sister to think. Clumsy as she was, Jeanette was brilliant when it came to bringing little ideas to life in big ways.

"You've always been wonderful at weaving some twigs together to make pretty things. We could…fish some smooth pebbles from the river and push them into the walls, make them strong and pretty," Jeanette began after a couple moments of silence, "If we can find enough clear rocks, maybe…halite, mica, even some quartz, I could tie them up in some bark fibers and make us a sunroof. A great big elephant ear leaf could cover it during rainy time."

"A sunroof?!" Brittany squeaked loudly enough to make Jeanette jump back and fall on her bottom, "You're amazing at this, you know?"

"Well, uh, I…" Jeanette stammered, crawling back to her feet, "I wouldn't be half as good without your well-laid plans getting me started, Brit."

"Let's do this, Jeanette," Brittany murmured, reaching up to wipe some stray dirt off from around Jeanette's eyelid, "You and me, sis. It's been a long time since I could sleep without dreaming of snakes creeping in on me or spiders living under my bed."

"Can we do it this time? Really?" Jeanette whispered, glancing down at her sister's clay drawing.

Brittany hugged Jeanette tightly.

"Yes, really."

* * *

The blazing summer heat was slow to surrender to the timid Australian fall. Working tirelessly through rain and shine, through scorching days and dangerous nights, they came together to turn a meager dirt home into a place of real artistic beauty. The tiny clearing had been cleared of tall grass, and Brittany had lined the edges with wild daisies and goldenrods. There were tiny picnic tables made of bark, evergreen garlands stretched through the branches overhead, and even a wind-chime Jeanette had fashioned from scrap metal found in the river. Bathed in twinkling sunlight filtering through the fall colors overhead, it was a home any creature would be proud of.

Inside the burrow, the walls were pressed with smooth stones and the floor was comfortably littered with old moss. Jeanette held true to her idea for a sunroof, so the living room was lit from above by twinkling clear stones expertly pushed through the ceiling to the surface ground. There were tiny rooms filled with nuts and dried berries, as the sisters prepared for the coming winter. Their bedroom held two little beds, with strips of canvas filled with wood chips as a mattress and pieces of denim used as blankets, taken from bits of old blue jeans they had found in the river. It was a lovely and humble home, and it grew better and better as the days went by.

Brittany was down by the river digging up dandelions to add to her pine garlands. The tiny chipmunk stumbled around with a pile of bright yellow blossoms three times her size balanced on her head. With a heave, she tossed the big pile on the ground by the water, spitting and sputtering as dirt rained onto her face.

"Pth! Pthew!" she winced, "Dirt still tastes the same as it always has. Terrible!"

The sisters had named the little stream the River Giddy, as it was always bouncing and bubbling excitedly along. Clear and cold, it was the favorite place for Brittany and Jeanette to bathe, as the coolness was a relief from the summer heat, and predators such as the caiman and water snake hated the shallow, glassy water.

Climbing down the bank to the river's edge, Brittany sat on the end of a flat rock. She dipped her head under the surface of River Giddy, gasping happily from the refreshing chill. Brittany had just sat down to sink her tired feet in the water when she heard a loud crunching from the bank.

A big, fat wombat was chewing on her dandelions! The chubby gray creature was eight times her size, with rough fur and a stubby tail, much like a giant hamster with a piggish nose. The wombat took another mouthful of Brittany's flowers as the chipmunk came running up the bank, waving her tiny arms and squealing angrily at the fat creature.

"What are you doing, you oversized hairball!? I've been collecting those all day, you fat palooka, and I didn't do it for your lunch!"

The chubby wombat flicked his ears at the annoying little voice but otherwise ignored Brittany, taking another mouthful of dandelions from her pile. Brittany growled under her breath, grabbing the big rodent by his stumpy tail and pulling on it. She dug her tiny paws into the ground and tugged as hard as she could, but the chubby creature kept eating away.

"I…said… _stop_! Don't ignore me when I'm talking to you! We have real food back at the burrow! I'd be happy to share! Just drag your fat butt to our home and you can have all the nuts you want!"

She grabbed a big twig taller than herself and started swinging it at the wombat's rump, squeaking away the entire time. The little stick bounced harmlessly off the fat rodent's bottom.

"Bad chubby thing! Bad! Shoo! Be gone, foul beast!"

Suddenly, the bushes shivered loudly, and a figure came running out of the woods. The monster was big and green, covered in branches that sounded like an angry locust as they shook wildly around. Huge twiggy arms stretched to either side as the scary-looking thing ran right at Brittany and the wombat!

The wombat squeaked and ran away faster than anyone would expect such a hefty, stumpy-legged animal to move. It disappeared into the bushes, leaving Brittany and her twig to face the freakish monster. Brittany let out a yell and smacked the big monster around with her stick in a panicked frenzy.

"Ah! Go away! You won't have me and my sister!"

 _Thwack! Smack!_

"Ow! Brittany! I _am_ your sister!"

The leafy monster crumpled over and the branches fell apart. Jeanette's face appeared from the cover of green. She rubbed her little head and winced as she pulled the rest of the twigs off, tossing them down the bank.

"Oh, Jeanette!" Brittany exclaimed as she helped her sister undress from the shoddy disguise, "You scared me!"

"And _you_ have quite an arm," Jeanette retorted, rubbing her shoulder, "And an amazing volume, too. I heard that noise all the way from the burrow, and just had to come see if you were alright. I thought that chubby thing was attacking you!"

"Uhhh," Brittany sheepishly replied, "Yeah, attacking! I think I almost fended it off. See how scared it was? I had it so afraid, it ran away from your bunch of leaves…and stuff."

Jeanette rubbed her shoulder again and narrowed her little green eyes.

"Alright," Brittany mumbled, "It ate my flowers and I got mad. Happy?"

Staring at the pile of ruined dandelions, Jeanette put an arm around her sister. "Don't worry about it, Brit. There'll be plenty of late blooms to decorate with soon. Fall is such a pretty time of year."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"And if all else fails, we can open a restaurant. _'Le Wombat Magnifico!_ "

Brittany shoved her giggling sister away and huffed, stomping away as hard as a tiny chipmunk could stomp, which wasn't very hard at all.

"Maybe I'll open a diner that serves little sisters!" Brittany spat, "On a bed of dandelions!"

Jeanette's giggling followed Brittany all the way home.

* * *

 _And that concludes our little introduction!  
Your thoughts and comments aren't just polite,  
they're the exact thing that keeps me going and  
gives me great ideas for the future. So please,  
spend a moment of your time to tell me what you think!  
7hanks for reading. :)_


	2. Chapter Two: Fall

_Hello again!  
_ _I don't have any news this week,  
_ _so onward with the adventure!  
~R~_

* * *

 **BOOK ONE:  
Forgotten**

 **Chapter Two:  
** _ **Fall**_

* * *

Fall came bright and beautiful, just as Jeanette had promised. The sisters' home was adorned in seasonal colors, from the late-blooming flowers planted masterfully around the tiny clearing, to the golden leaves Brittany had pressed and stuffed into the overhanging garlands. The trees above were either naked or colored dark red or bronze as they prepared for the coming winter.

"Come on, Jeanette," Brittany called out, heaving, "Pull harder!"

"These things are heavy, Brit!" her sister replied.

The sisters were dragging a long net between them, filled with old nails and twigs to act like a makeshift rake. The net was full to burst with leaves cleared out from their front 'yard', which had gotten so deep that Brittany had gotten lost in them three times already, much to Jeanette's amusement.

"It's getting cold out here!"

"You're not the only one chilly, Jean!"

Being only eight inches tall, pulling a huge sack full of leaves was no small feat. Huffing and groaning, they finally dragged the net to a little ledge across from their burrow entrance. Together they scurried around the back of the big net and gave it a hefty shove. Crunching and rattling, it rolled once- and immediately got stuck on a rock at the top of the wooded hill.

"Ah, for heaven's sake!" Brittany grumbled, scampering around so she could slide down the ledge. Jeanette watched Brittany wearily from above as she disappeared under the big ball of leaves.

"Uh, Brittany?" she called hesitantly, flicking her tail around, "That isn't such a good idea."

"Oh quit worrying so much," a little voice called back, "We didn't break our backs over this thing just to have it uglying up our home, did we?"

"I don't think 'uglying' is a word…"

"You should worry less about words and more about helping me move this stupid- _wah_!"

Brittany pulled away the rock that had caught the net. All at once, the mesh fell open and the chipmunk disappeared in a wave of brown and bronze leaves that sounded like rushing water as they slid rapidly down the hill, throwing up glistening copper dust into the sunlight as they fell. Jeanette coughed and hopped down into the mess, squeaking as she sank into the crunchy little avalanche.

"Brittany!" she called, throwing enough leaves away to poke her tiny head up, "Are you alright? Brit?"

"I'm fine, Jean," Brittany called out from far below as she climbed onto a rock to escape the sea of leaves. She brushed dirt from her fur and spat out a chip off of a dead oak leaf. "Ugh, leaves, no better than dirt. Pthew!"

"I told you that wasn't a good idea," Jeanette shouted back, "You need to get up here. It's not safe."

"And I told you I needed help, you coconut-colored little…"

Brittany's blood ran cold as ice as she heard a very familiar rustling from the rocks below her.  
She looked down, and the death-adder snake hit her faster than an eye could blink.

Jeanette saw her sister disappear in a flurry of dead leaves, but not before she caught sight of the glistening dark scales of a reptile. With a shriek of fright, the younger sister dove down the hill, tumbling and rolling and kicking away leaves as she rushed to help her sibling.

As the adder flung Brittany left and right like a ragdoll, she screamed and held on for dearest life. The huge fangs had missed Brittany by the width of a tail hair. She had been saved only by her own incredible reaction time, shoving her feet into the corners of the serpent's mouth to keep from being swallowed. Now the venomous fangs were folded by her sides, and Brittany wrapped her arms over the snake's nose, knowing that if it opened again, she could be killed. Ironically, the only thing saving her was remaining trapped in the snake's otherwise toothless mouth.

"J-Jeanette!" she screamed, as the angry serpent whipped her back and forth, "Help! I don't wanna be dinner!"

Tearing apart the leaf net with her tiny bare claws, Jeanette raced down the hill, tripping and rolling along the way, ignoring the bruises and scratches the gained as she fell. Her tiny heart beat like the drum of a marching band as she flung herself onto a rock the size of a baseball, tying the net tightly around the stone.

"Just hang on, Brit! I have an idea!"

"Waaaaaah!" her sister replied as the thick-bodied snake wrestled her through leaves and mud alike, hugging tighter to keep the deadly jaws shut, "Ideas! They're great! Use one please!"

Jeanette dodged the furious serpent and darted up the nearest tree she could find, dragging the loose end of the long net with her. When she found a high branch, she looped the net over it and, clinging tightly to the strings, bravely leapt from the tree without a second thought. She weighed much less than the rock on the other end, but her momentum yanked the big stone towards the high branch. Climbing her end of the net, she repeated the jump again, and again, and again, slowly pulling the rock higher and higher, knowing that every second wasted could mean the end of Brittany's short life.

Finally, when the rock was hanging just below the branch, Jeanette scurried back down as fast as she could. She ran towards the chaos of tossed leaves and spattered mud where the mad snake was struggling to get its fangs into a stubborn Brittany. Ignoring the angry hissing and frightened screams, Jeanette leapt onto the tail of the big snake!

The brave chipmunk held on to the smooth scales as the powerful snake whipped around, smacking her into the dirt and throwing leaves in her face. Jeanette looped the loose end of the net around the serpent and tied it as tight as she could manage, until the scales bent under the squeeze of the strings.

"Brittany!" she shouted as she ran back to the tall tree, "When I call you, you have to let go!"

"Wh-what!" her battered sister replied from the mouth of the snake, "You're crazy!"

"Just do it!"

"F-fine! But I'm haunting you forever, J-J-Jeanette! Whoaaaah!"

Jeanette scurried up the tree to where the rock was hanging freely. With a yell, she leapt from the high trunk, right onto the dangling stone.

"Brittany! Let go!"

It all happened at once. Jeanette landed on the rock, which immediately plummeted towards the ground below. Brittany released her hold on the adder's jaws, screaming as she saw a flash of white fangs as they sprung open. Then she was free, flung to the ground as the snake was jerked high into the tree by its tail. Jeanette yelled out as she fell with the rock, far to the ground below, as the snake was pulled higher and higher away from the sisters.

Brittany lay in a dazed stupor, her breaths heavy and panicked as she watched the snake go. She shook her head and called out to her sibling.

"Jeanette! A-Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Brittany," Jeanette called as she scurried up to her sister, "I jumped off the rock and landed on some leaves. They were soft enough to-"

"Am I bit!?" Brittany shrieked, twisting around, lifting her arms and legs, grabbing her tail, and feeling her ears, "Did it get me? Do you see anything? Am I bleeding!? I don't want to die!"

"Brittany, Brittany!" Jeanette shouted, grabbing her panic-stricken sister in a hug, "You're fine! Just banged up, but you're okay. Those are just scrapes."

"J-Jeanette?" Brittany said, glancing up at the writhing, angry snake in the tree high above, "That was amazing. I've never seen anything like it."

"Yeah, well, inspiration comes quickly when my sister's in trouble," Jeanette replied, "In fact, I'm inspired pretty often."

"Oh, _ha ha_ to the big, fat _ha_ ," Brittany muttered, "Are…are you sure I wasn't bitten?"

"Very sure! That was a young death-adder, one of the most venomous creatures in the world," Jeanette said, speaking excitedly as she always did when bringing up facts about animals and such, "You'd have been dead thirty-six and a half times by now if it had even scratched you."

Brittany shoved her sister into the leaves. "Oh good, thank you! So comforting, Jeanette!"

"Sorry! Let's get you back home so we can clean you up."

Mumbling under her breath, Brittany followed her sibling as they climbed the steep hill back up to their little grove. She heard a muffled _crash!_ and turned to see the death-adder had come loose from the net, plummeting into the big pile of dead leaves. It hissed to itself, dazed, tired, and hungry, its black and brown scales sparkling in the afternoon sunlight as it slowly slithered away to hunt another day.

"Yeah, you better run!" Brittany scoffed from high on the hill, "Ain't no room for you in this town, you fat-headed wannabe worm! Go back to your ugly momma and tell her what a whoopin' my sister just-"

The snake turned and flicked a blood-red tongue at the impudent chipmunk. Screaming, Brittany bolted up the hill as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, running over a startled Jeanette along the way.

Hissing at itself again, the confused, grumpy death adder snake turned and slithered away into the undergrowth, disappearing unseen like the awesome predator it truly was. Today, the two sisters had bested an animal named after death itself.

* * *

"Ah! This w-water is f-f-freezing!" Brittany squealed as she hopped into the River Giddy. She darted out of the water with a splash, hopping up and down and shaking all over.

"Brittany, get back in!" Jeanette called, standing on a nearby stump, "If that mud cakes in your fur, you'll really freeze. You'll look like a miserable rock!"

"At least I'm a d-dry, miserable rock!" Brittany snapped back, hugging her muddy fur tightly, shivering harder in the cold fall breeze.

"Brittany," Jeanette huffed and scurried over to Brittany's side, "Fine, you don't have to go back in the water until I finish this sentence."

"I don't wha-"

Jeanette shoved Brittany back into the river. The older chipmunk plopped into the dark water with a shriek of displeasure, bright orange murk washing away from where she fell. A tiny head popped up from the icy cold surface, little blue eyes glaring in the late afternoon twilight.

"J-J-Jeanette!" Brittany cried, "I'm g-g-g-gonna f-feed you to a w-wombat, you j-j-jerk!"

Jeanette giggled from the bank. "Hey, Brittany? You're all clean now, see?"

A distant ring of thunder partially drowned out the angry Brittany's response. Both chipmunks looked up at the darkening sky, where the last turquoise rays of sunlight were being swallowed up by rolling black clouds. A few fat raindrops pattered onto the fallen leaves that blanketed the ground.

One big, icy raindrop splatted right into Jeanette's face. She squeaked, stunned, and stumbled right over the edge of the stump she was standing on, rolling down the bank and right into the freezing water of River Giddy in a ball of dark brown fur.

 _'Plop!'_

Brittany laughed as her sister yelled out, leaping out the water and hugging herself tightly, shaking from head to tail.

"Th-that's wh-what you get, J-J-Jenny!"

"C-come on, Brittany, we need to g-g-get home!"

* * *

Back at the burrow, Brittany and Jeanette pulled the huge elephant-ear leaf over the sunroof over the living room, then shoved a big river rock in the entrance of the underground home to block out the rain.

The sisters sat curled up in the darkness of their bedroom, listening to the thunder above as it shook the dirt walls around them. Big raindrops created a dull, rapid thudding and pounding, like listening to a drummer two floors overhead.

Brittany and Jeanette were wrapped up tightly in their rough denim blankets, occasionally shivering in their damp fur. The burrow was quite warm, as Jeanette had covered the above ground in dead foliage to produce heat. Every once and a while, a bright flash appeared through the sunroof in the living room, from the wild lightning outside. The sisters, however, were unafraid.

"Sounds like a pretty bad one, doesn't it?" Brittany asked, pulling her blanket tighter.

"I'm sure we've seen worse," Jeanette replied, "I hope that snake found somewhere safe. They don't do well in the cold."

"Yeah, well I don't do well in a snake!" Brittany retorted, and Jeanette laughed.

"What about the wombat?"

"I hope he chokes on a pinecone."

"Brittany!" Jeanette giggled louder, "You're still bitter over that?"

"Those were pretty dandelions!"

"Pretty delicious, too."

"Zip it, sister!"

The siblings sat quietly together for a while, listening to the chaos of the wild storm outside. It was a symphony of crackling lightning, rolling thunder, and pounding rain. Jeanette finally yawned after a long while.

"I'm dozing off," she murmured, "Goodnight, Brittany."

"Hey, Jeanette?" Brittany asked in the dark.

"Yes?"

"We did good, didn't we?" There was worry in Brittany's voice.

"Yes, of course we did. It's beautiful."

"Jeanette?"

"Yes, Brittany?"

"Thank you."

Jeanette smiled. Open gratitude was very rare from her older sister. She often showed it, but she never said it out loud. Jeanette had learned to respect Brittany's pride as well as her charisma.

"Thank you too," she said, "Brittany?"

"Yes?"

"They would be proud."

The darkness of the little burrow's bedroom was quiet for another long moment. It was Brittany's voice that softly rung out into song. Her high-pitched little voice was surprisingly smooth and controlled and strong. Jeanette smiled at the familiar sound. Sometimes she could hardly tell if singing was Brittany's greatest talent, passion, or both. Either way, Brittany's voice was beautiful.

" _Dream by night,  
Wish by day  
Love begins this way.  
Loving starts  
When open hearts  
Touch, and stay.  
Sleep for now  
Dreaming's how  
Lover's lives are planned.  
Future songs  
And flying dreams,  
Hand, in hand."_

Jeanette joined her sister for the next verse. Her voice was not as trained as Brittany's, but the gentler pitch made for a wonderful backup and compliment to her sister's. Brittany was proud of her sister for joining in, and always encouraged her when she faltered. Jeanette, however, rarely failed to impress.

" _Love it seems  
Made flying dreams  
So hearts, could soar.  
Heaven sent  
These wings were meant  
To prove, once more.  
That love is the key...  
Love is the key.  
You and I  
Touch the sky  
The eagle and the dove.  
Nightingales  
We keep our sails  
Filled with love.  
And love it seems  
Made flying dreams,  
To bring you home to me..."_

The last notes of the little duet faded away, drowned out by the mad storm on the surface ground above. Brittany stretched and yawned in the dark, rolling over and wrapping herself in the denim blanket.

"Goodnight, Jenny," she said.

"Goodnight, Brittany," was the reply.

* * *

Nature is not a forgiving thing. Never before has it been merciful, and never will it ever be. Nature is beautiful and giving and generous, but her anger is unmatched in fury and danger. Nature is unstoppable, insurmountable, and powerful. Nature is life. Nature is death.

Unknown to the sleeping chipmunks, the unrelenting rain was falling in massive silver sheets above. Nearby, the River Giddy had quickly swollen to twice its normal depth, freezing black waters roiling and sloshing. The low banks was melting under the pressure and moisture, mud swirling and caving in as the normally timid waters clawed for an escape.

A single old tree stood in the way of the disaster. As the torrential rain came down, and the mad winds blew, and the furious river rushed, the roots of the tree were exposed and the soil was ripped away. With a somber groan, the doomed tree collapsed, and its ancient roots tore free of the sodden ground. The tortured bank of River Giddy caved, and burst open in a surge of dark water and sloshing red mud.

A wall of icy water rushed straight for the home of Brittany and Jeanette.

* * *

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0 **CHAPTER END** 0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O

* * *

 _Everyone loves a cliffhanger. ;)  
See you next week!  
As always, your thoughts are  
precious to me. Let me know  
what you honestly think of  
my work!  
~R~_

* * *

 _ **Song(s):  
**_ **Kenny Loggins - "Dream By Night"  
from _The Secret of NIMH_**


	3. Chapter 3: The Storm

**BOOK ONE:  
Forgotten**

 **Chapter Three:  
** _ **The Storm**_

* * *

 _Brittany dreamed of flowers and sunlight, the last safe home she knew before tragedy had taken her daddy away. She knew everything because of him. Her voice and body were strong just like his. Her love was endless, just like his._

 _For the first time in a long time, Brittany dreamed of happiness. There were no spiders and snakes under her bed anymore. She had found a home worthy of her dad's name. A morning glory peeled open to reveal golden-cream petals to the sunlight. Dandelion puffs drifted on a whisper of wind. The homely smell of dirt and fresh water. The voice of her dad. The sound of her old name, named because of her color. The name before Brittany._

 _She never used that name again after he died._

 _The burble of a cold stream. The bubbling of fish beneath the surface. The stream was growing colder. Water turned black. A predator growled._

 _"Brittany."_

 _Not a voice she knew. The sky was black now._

 _Fireflies danced, bright gold._

 _"Wake up."_

 _The fireflies flashed bright and gold. The water was cold. The water was everywhere. Her fur was cold as ice._

 _"Survive."_

* * *

Brittany blinked herself awake. It was entirely dark in the burrow's bedroom. The smell of mud filled her nose. Dazed and sleepy, she took a moment to realize her tail was wet. Confused, she pulled it back onto the bed, and that's when the chipmunk realized the entire floor was now water. Droplets fell from the muddy ceiling onto her denim blanket. Her entire bed was rocking from the ripples of the water.

"Uh…Jeanette?" Brittany whispered nervously. Her sister mumbled in her sleep.

There was a sloshing sound now, growing louder by the second. Droplets fell down like rain. The ceiling was turning to mush in the darkness, bending and crunching.

"Jenny," Brittany called, louder, but the sound of thunder drowned out her voice. Jeanette stirred from the noise, meeting her sister's eyes in the dark, but it was too late.

The disaster struck.

Before Brittany could utter a sound, the glassy rocks of the sunroof caved in all at once. Floodwater roared into the burrow, tearing down walls and smashing furniture as it rushed through the little home and straight into the bedroom. The sisters were slammed from their broken beds as the entire burrow filled with water. Brittany grabbed for Jeanette's hand as they whirled about. It seemed they would die, trapped underwater in their own home.

All at once, the walls of the burrow caved in. Water smashed the mud and dirt wide open and flung the two chipmunks into the open ground, washing them away with the remains of their destroyed home.

The wild flood swept the sisters downhill, tearing up flowers, rocks, and everything in its path. Brittany's tiny head popped from the surface of the churning, ice-cold blackness, sputtering and coughing as she desperately sought out her sibling through the torrential sheets of pouring rain that beat upon her tiny head like falling stones. The night was dark as coal, the storm utterly deafening.

"J-J-Jeanette!" she screamed, but the chaos muted her little voice to almost nothing. Freezing water rushed over her face and into her throat as she cried out once more. Branches swatted her head as she was swept along, tumbling down hills and over rocks that battered her fragile body. Brittany fought will all her strength to stay upright, her limbs senseless from the cold.

"Brit-"

Brittany heard the frail voice call out in the darkness, and turned to see a tiny shape tumbling through the rushing water. She grabbed onto muddy branches and struggled to get closer to her sister, but the little chipmunk was at the mercy of the raging flood. A churning sea of mud, water, and sodden dead leaves kept the sisters apart.

As the water rushed downhill, Jeanette disappeared into the blackness. Brittany smacked into trees and muddy banks until the water levelled out again. She caught sight of her sister. Launching herself from a big tumbling stick, Brittany grabbed Jeanette by her little arm and shoved her to the surface.

"B-Brittany!?" Jeanette screamed in the dark, her messy hair matted tightly to her face, "Don't let go!"

"I'm not!" Brittany shouted back, "I'm not letting-"

 _'Crack!'_

There was a terrible noise as a rushing branch rolled end over end in the violent flood and struck Jeanette's little head. The chipmunk went limp as a broken doll and tumbled away from Brittany before the older sister could react.

"Jeanette!" she screamed.

All at once, the violent water slowed at it reached a flatland and spread out across the battered landscape. Brittany felt ground beneath her feet and stumbled, crawled, and waded her way through the mud in desperate search for her sibling. She called out, her heart breaking every time there was no response. A dozen times, she ran for a limp shape in the freezing water only to find a fallen leaf.

Something wrapped around Brittany's foot as she slogged through the mess. She pulled it off and realized it was Jeanette's leaf-fiber hair tie, snapped and broken. There were tears in the rain on Brittany's face as she called out again. There was no reply.

Brittany suddenly tripped in the water and fell into the shallows. She plunged her arms into the murk and was horrified to find Jeanette lying motionless in the black mud. The older sibling yanked her sister's head above water, both of them getting pounded by huge, icy raindrops. The rain beat the slimy mud out of their fur almost immediately, stinging and bruising the skin beneath.

"J-Jeanette?" Brittany called out over the din, "Jeanette, s-s-say something!"

The chipmunk's face remained still.

"No," Brittany whispered, "N-no…no no no!"

Dragging Jeanette by her shoulders through the muck, Brittany pulled her up onto a mound beneath an old oak tree. Ignoring the rain that slapped her back, she shook the motionless chipmunk, shouting and screaming over the roar of the storm.

"Jeanette! Please wake up! Say s-something, open your eyes, anything, p-p-please!"

Nothing.

"Not my sister…"

Brittany leaned over Jeanette and started shoving both hands forcefully against her belly. She held her sister's nose and breathed through Jeanette's mouth and into her lungs, fighting to give her sibling another breath of life, and went back to shoving. She kept it up for minutes at a time, but nothing worked. Desperate and crying, Brittany grabbed a smooth river rock and pounded it against Jeanette's chest.

 _'Thump! Thump!'_

"No, p-please!" Brittany wailed, breathing into Jeanette's lungs once more, "Not my sister! Anything but my sister! Please!" She smacked the rock against Jeanette's chest.

 _'Thump! Thump!_

"Don't leave me, Jeanette! I can't do this alone! I can't be alone again! Please don't leave m-me!"

 _'THUMP!'_

A spurt of water erupted from Jeanette's mouth as she retched and coughed. The younger chipmunk doubled over and emptied her lungs and stomach of the freezing water, shuddering from head to feet.

"I…won't." she squeaked.

Brittany sobbed as she took her sister in an embrace, hugging her as tight as she dared. Jeanette returned the shivering hug as best she could. There was a warmth and relief between them that blossomed stronger than the cold storm around them.

"Y-y-you have…quite an arm…" Jeanette croaked.

"Don't scare me like that!" Brittany wailed, shaking terribly from fear and cold alike, "I can't do this alone, Jeanette. I can't!"

"You w-won't…have to…"

Jeanette fell unconscious in Brittany's arms. Brittany shoved an ear against her sister's chest, relieved to hear a heartbeat but alarmed at her condition. A gust of cold wind nearly blew the older chipmunk over as rain continued to pelt her head and back. She knew they would perish here in the open.

Looking around for anything that could be used as a shelter, Brittany caught sight of something shiny caught on a twig near the rushing floodwater. It was an old potato chip bag. She pulled the big metallic bag up to the bottom of the big oak tree and crammed it into a gap beneath the roots. Taking Jeanette under the arms, she dragged her sister through the mud and rolled her into the bag, and climbed in beside her.

Brittany crumpled the edges until no more rain could get into the old snack bag, but wisely left a tiny hole for air. The smell of mud, salt, and wet fur pervaded the air. Shivering, the chipmunk took her sister in her arms and cradled her, just like her dad had once done.

The storm continued to rage around them. The bag did nothing to mute the thunder and rushing water. Rain beat down on the bag like a steel drum until Brittany was deafened by the rapid-fire popping and crackling.

"We're making it through this," Brittany murmured through the racket, halfway between reality and darkness, "For us."

She brushed back her sister's messy hair and was frightened to find a patch of deep red where the branch had struck the back of Jeanette's head. Brittany took hold of her sibling's limbs and breathed onto them, rubbing, massaging, and working to keep warmth flowing through her body. She repeated the process on Jeanette's ears, arms, hands, legs, feet, and tail, and then did it again, and again, as the storm raged on.

"J-J-Jeanette…if you can hear me," Brittany whispered, pausing to breathe onto her unconscious sister's wrist, "I'm sorry. You always deserved better, you brilliant nutcase. If we make it, I promise you, Jeanette, I will _never_ make you sleep in the dirt again. No more dirt. I promise."

Hours passed, and Brittany still worked to make sure her sister lived. The storm died away, and Brittany was still rubbing warmth through Jeanette's prone body, whispering soft promises and talking of memories and gibberish brought on by her exhaustion. An hour before dawn, Brittany, too, finally succumbed and collapsed as her vision turned to black. She slept with Jeanette in her arms.

Soft blue hues of the near-rising sun on the horizon marked the end of the worst chapter of the young girls' lives, and the beginning of something new.

* * *

CHAPTER END


	4. Chapter 4: Broken

_**Happy Easter!  
** **Welcome to my next chapter. When you're**_  
 _ **done reading I have a very important message**_  
 _ **at the end. If you really want me to continue,**_  
 _ **you'll take a look.**_  
 _ **Onward!**_

* * *

 **BOOK ONE:  
Forgotten**

 **Chapter Four:  
** _ **Broken**_

* * *

The next morning brought a startling contrast to the relentless violence of the past night. Chilly winds chased the ghostly tails of storm clouds disappearing into the horizon, carrying with them the thick, saline stench of rain and mud. The ground looked war-torn. Pummeled, dead leaves were mashed against trees and piled around the edges of wide puddles that were filled to the brim with brackish water.

It was a couple cold hours before sunlight breached the eastern horizon, painting the sad indigo sky with the soft, energetic glow of mandarin. As the hours stretched on, the light crept down over the devastation wrought by the flood. It was nearly noon when a metallic object glinted brightly in the crux of a tree root.

Brittany's mud-encrusted eyes cracked open to meet the blinding sunlight that pierced the slit of the little potato chip bag. Coughing dust from her lips, she crawled onto her hands and knees, wet from the smelly puddle of water in the bottom of the bag. Grabbing Jeanette's arm, she dragged the unconscious chipmunk out of the crumpled bag and into the fresh air and sunlight.

Falling on her face as she escaped the bag, Brittany left Jeanette where she lay and dragged herself, groaning, to a murky puddle. The world around her was an unfocused blur of dull noise and tilting pictures, as if she'd been lost into the waves of the sea. Brittany dipped her face into the puddle, but immediately shot back out and retched at the horrible taste. Her mouth was dry and full of dust.

Rolling onto her back, Brittany found herself far too exhausted to drag herself back up the little hill. She simply breathed, staring into the brightening sky and the wispy clouds high above, listening to the distant sound of birdsong. Hungry, injured, and exhausted, Brittany felt the world close in like a dark blanket. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the feel of the sunlight, that glorious warmth that filled her pale orange fur with energy and comfort.

* * *

Brittany was hardly aware of the doglike animals that approached her now, scavengers who picked off the scraps left over by the vicious flood. To them, she knew, she was one of those scraps. In the back of her mind, a weak voice yelled for her to get up, to run, find cover, and pull her sister to safety, but it was no use. Her body was done fighting.

The creatures approached her, blotting out the sun. She could hear their constant yipping and whining, the loud sniffing of their big wet noses as they drew near. Hot breaths washed over Brittany as the doglike things pushed her around with their snouts, their yipping loud enough to hurt her ears. Brittany winced and cringed with all the energy she had left. She was as good as dead to these predators.

"Nam! Dogga, nam! Cheepa!"

A very tiny voice called out to them, shrill and oddly pretty. The yipping noises stopped, and the doglike things with their curious snouts backed away. Suddenly, Brittany felt hands, even smaller than her own, touch her. A warm, wet cloth was laid over her eyes, and something like a tiny cup was held to her lips.

"Cheepa, dink. Dink!"

Brittany shuddered pleasantly at the warm, strong, slightly bitter drink that flowed into her mouth. Coughing up the first gulp, she shakily took hold of the tiny cup and swallowed the rest, sighing with relief as the dryness of her throat and the emptiness of her stomach were relieved. Brittany pointed a trembling arm in the general direction of Jeanette.

"Sister…" she croaked.

"Sispa? Cheepu nur dinka. Lim tea. Good."

Brittany didn't have enough strength to even try and comprehend what the tiny stranger had said. The battered chipmunk slipped into darkness once again.

* * *

It was late noon when Brittany screamed, her belly abruptly jabbed by something big and sharp. Blind, she grabbed for the nearest thing she could, a little river rock, and slammed it across the face of her attacker with a loud _'clack!'_ With a squawk of dismay, the creature, a young crow, took flight to escape the chipmunk it had mistaken for a lifeless meal.

Brittany watched the shiny black bird disappear over the treetops. In a daze, she touched her belly, wincing as she smeared a drop of blood across her fur. The scratch was painful but otherwise harmless.

The chipmunk sat up and did as her father always taught her in a physical emergency. She wiggled all her toes, clenched both her fists, curled her tail, and flicked her ears. Staring into the trees, she focused on a single dangling orange leaf, using one eye at a time, and then both. The leaf, sparkling with moisture in the sun, became clear in her tired vision, from the withered serrated edges to the speckles of brown that pockmarked its surface.

Sighing with relief, Brittany wobbled to her feet. She was alive. No limbs or digits were broken, she wasn't cut badly, and she most certainly wasn't in the belly of a scavenging beast. This was still life. As Brittany took her first shaky step, she nearly kicked over a small, hollow gourd on the ground by her side.

"What is this?" she whispered. There were dirty leaves and pieces of rag laying all around her, and that's when Brittany realized the crusty mud that had clung to her fur was no longer there. Someone had cleaned her while she slept.

"Jeanette," Brittany croaked. Suddenly she was filled with fright for her sibling. "Jeanette! Are you okay? Where are you?"

Brittany found her sister snoozing near where she had left her, by the roots of a big tree. She was shocked to see that not only was Jeanette likewise cleaned, but there was another odd gourd laying by her side. Rushing to Jeanette, Brittany slid to her knees and pushed her ear against her sibling's chest. A strong heartbeat was there to reassure her.

"Oh, Jeanette," Brittany murmured, brushing the disheveled frizzy mess of Jeanette's hair away from her sister's eyes, "Can you hear me? I don't know who it was, but it saved us."

Brittany took up a gourd, a strange hollowed-out shell of a fruit, similar to a squash. Finding a cork at the top, she yanked it off to find that the gourd was filled with the same bittersweet tea that the tiny stranger had offered her.

Suddenly, Jeanette sat bolt upright as if totally awake.

"Oh, hello!" she exclaimed.

Brittany screamed with shock, barely restraining herself from hurling the gourd at Jeanette in fright.

"Ah! What, how, why did you do that, Jeanette!?" Brittany stammered, "I almost choked on my heart! Are you okay?"

"Jeanette," her sister flatly replied, staring straight over Brittany's shoulder as if Brittany wasn't there, "Who…is…Jeanette?"

Brittany blinked.

"Jeanette," the bigger sister said, " _You…_ are Jeanette."

"Oh. I don't really feel like a…Jeanette. Are you sure?"

"What, yes, I'm sure! You've been Jeanette since the day you were born!"

"I don't know. What about Brittany?"

"What about me?" Brittany asked, blinking again.

"You?" Jeanette replied, still not quite looking at Brittany's face as she talked, "No, I just kind of feel like a Brittany, or…something."

"Jeanette, _I'm_ Brittany, _you_ are Jeanette."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Brittany snapped.

"Oh. Okay, goodnight."

With that, Jeanette promptly fainted onto her back, sound asleep once again. Brittany sat with her mouth hanging open, never having been so confused in her entire life. She took a sip of warm tea from the first gourd and scooted closer to her sister, keeping watch and struggling to try and forget what had just happened.

"Jeanette, this is no time to sleep!" she complained, shaking her slumbering sibling by the shoulders, "Wake up! We need to go!"

Brittany screamed again as Jeanette sat straight up in her face, giving her older sister a confused expression.

"Brittany? What's the hurry, are we in danger?"

"Stop doing that!" Brittany snapped, clutching her chest over her pounding heart. Jeanette cringed, bewildered.

"Stop doing what?" Jeanette squeaked. She winced deeply, clutching the back of her little head. Brittany felt guilty for yelling.

"Nothing, nothing," Brittany muttered, taking a deep breath, "Here, take a sip of this while I check out that head, Jenny." She offered one of the gourds and stepped around to her sister's back. Jeanette took a long drink of the tea while Brittany tenderly picked through the fur on the back of her head.

"Wow, this isn't bad at all," said Jeanette, taking a second draught, "I didn't know you could make tea, Brittany."

"I can't," Brittany admitted, scraping mud out of her sister's hair, "I don't know who did, but I think he saved us. Or she. I couldn't tell, but he seemed nice."

"Yes, well I'd love to find the recipe for- _Ow!"_

Jeanette wailed and dropped the gourd with a hefty thump, bending over and clutching her head as if she had just began to realize the pain of her injury. Brittany swiftly grabbed Jeanette, who began to shake from fright and pain. The older sister could see the angry patch of red on the back of her sibling's head.

"Brittany, it hurts," Jeanette cried. She paused, then turned to look at her sister with a shocked expression, "The home. Brittany, our home! What happened? Where are we, when did this happen?"

"You don't…remember?" Brittany asked softly, "Jeanette…last night there was a big flood. The storm, remember? It washed away everything."

"What?" Jeanette squeaked, visibly shaken, "How? I don't…I can't…is there anything left?"

Brittany slowly shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears.

"No, we…we worked so long, and winter is almost… _ow!"_ Jeanette grabbed her head again as a throbbing pain erupted through her skull. Brittany was quick to hug her once again.

"Jeanette, do you remember my promise?"

 _"Ow…_ wha…what promise?"

"It…doesn't matter. Come on, maybe moving around a bit will help you feel better."

Brittany helped Jeanette to her feet, where the taller chipmunk wobbled back and forth fitfully. After watching her struggle for a few moments, Brittany fetched a little forked twig for Jeanette to use as a walking stick. Putting one arm through the fork of the twig, Jeanette smiled back at Brittany.

"Thanks, Brittany."

"Don't worry about it. You got smacked pretty hard, it's probably nothing."

"I what?"

"Uh," Brittany quickly changed the subject, "Where do you think we should go?"

"I'm not sure," Jeanette replied, rubbing one eye fitfully, "Ugh, I think I got some mud in my eye."

Jeanette looked at Brittany and blinked, squinting, and started rubbing her other eye as well. She continued until the fit of annoyance almost caused her to lose her balance, stumbling sideways on her walking stick.

"Whoa, sister, easy!" Brittany exclaimed, catching Jeanette before she could fall, "Alright, sit down, you're doing it, too."

"Doing what?" Jeanette asked, obediently sitting back down in the dirt.

"Remember what Daddy taught us a long time ago after he fell out of that tree?" Brittany questioned.

"Was it the time he was trying to put a whoopee cushion in a squirrel nest?" Jeanette asked, "Or the time he was trying to put a leash on a robin and name it Spencer?"

"I think it was the time he wanted to toss water on an owl and tell it to quit hooting at his girls," Brittany said with a chuckle, "Remember _? Head or rump, got a bump? Take a seat, wiggle your feet, have a drink, and try to blink."_

"Such a stupid rhyme," Jeanette laughed.

"Yeah well, he wasn't a poet, was he?" Brittany giggled, "Come on, Jenny, do it. Head to feet."

Following Brittany's instructions, Jeanette wiggled her ears, clutched her tiny paws into fists, and gently twisted side to side, all without any pain. It was when they reached her lower body that Brittany began to grow alarmed.

"Curl your toes, Jeanette," she said, "They're hardly moving, you nut."

"Brittany," Jeanette replied with a squeak, "I _am_ curling them."

Brittany watched Jeanette's four clawed toes tremble as she strained to make them curl. They were stiff as poorly cooked macaroni. Visibly frustrated, Jeanette roughly rubbed her eyes again, hard enough that Brittany grabbed her wrist to make her stop.

"Jeanette, cut that out, it just makes it worse," Brittany pleaded, "Come on, look at me. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uh, um…" Jeanette murmured, squinting at Brittany, "Five?"

Brittany stared nervously at the one finger she had raised.

"That's right!" she lied, "See, you're fine. We'd better get moving, sis. Come on, up up up!"

"Brittany," Jeanette whispered, staring up at her sister with terrified little eyes, "Am…am I _broken_?"

Brittany hesitated before she could answer.

"Just a little banged up, that's all." She smiled and offered a hand to her sister. Jeanette took it and wobbled to her feet, leaning heavily on her tiny crutch.

"Do you mind carrying the tea?" Jeanette asked, "I think it's in our best interest to find out who left these and why. Maybe he knows somewhere we can go."

"No problem!" Brittany grinned, easily hefting the two little gourds on her back, "Onward, sister?"

"Onward," Jeanette replied, returning a smile.

Jeanette took three steps and fainted to the ground.

* * *

 **CHAPTER END**

* * *

 _ **Hello and 7hank you for reading!  
**_ _ **If you've gotten this far on a first time, then thank you  
** **for giving my stories a chance. You don't know how much I**_  
 _ **appreciate that.**_

 _ **However, if you've been quietly reading these as you go along,**_  
 _ **I do have a dire request. I am not a person of high self-esteem.**_  
 _ **Writing is not just my hobby, it's my life, and Fanfiction is where**_  
 _ **I turn to find criticism while producing these grand little adventures.**_

 **Without proper feedback from you, my readers, this tale will be discontinued.**

 _ **I'm perfectly fine with writing this little story for myself, my girlfriend, and  
**_ _ **my close friends as they're all great AatC fans, and they're also the only  
**_ _ **ones right now giving me the feedback/reviews/criticism that I need so badly.**_

 _ **7hank you for reading, honestly. :)**_  
 **Happy Easter!**  
 **~R~**


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